UNCLE EWALD'S FARM

I had a little procedure yesterday... and the drugs have made me a bit sentimental.  I got to thinking about a trip to Nebraska in the 60s.

Two adults and five kids in a  Buick station

wagon.  My brother and I in the "way back" reciting lines from To Kill A Mockingbird to amuse ourselves and the family.  I was in third grade.

Nebraska fascinated me.  All that flat full of corn.My great grandmother on my father's side was something else.  She fed us to death!  Foods my mother never would have cooked, like fried chicken.  Desert time brought jello.  I immediately ate all the whipped cream off of my jiggly square.  GG hopped up and declared how impossible it was that she had forgotten my whipped cream and plopped another big blob on top.  This happened more than once.  Not whipped cream from a can and not Cool Whip... the real thing, cream fresh from a cow that day... a heavenly cloud of yum!

GG seemed to have great power in her tiny town.  We walked into the small down town and found a really-o truly-o soda fountain in the general store.  The man behind the counter would not take our money.  He took a photo instead of me sipping my chocolate soda and the next time we went there, the photo was hanging behind the counter on the wall and the sodas were still on that sweet man.

We spent a few days at Uncle Ewald's pig farm.

I learned more than a few things there... such as if you make a mother sow mad, she can tear down a wire fence and chase you all the way to the corn crib and you better be ready to divert her attention with the corn cobs that you threw at her until Uncle Ewald could rescue you.  Boy was he steaming mad!

That was where I learned that cats and kittens were not pets, but needed mousers and you were not to sneak treats to them.

Or that a thunder storm is a violent thing that causes adults to yell at you to "Get inside now!" 

And that baby piglets in mass move like wheat in the wind as you walk through them... but if you stand real still, they will come and nibble at your toes.

Or that there was a stream that ran out back of GG's house where you could catch a few fish every day while pretending to be Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn, feet dangling in the water.  GG never yelled at us for getting wet or muddy.  All she ever did was laugh and compliment us on our fabulous catch... then fried them in corn meal and served them on a china platter with the rest of the feast she laid out. 

City girl meets the country.  But the best part was catching fireflies in the warm evening.  I was so surprised to see them looking so ugly in the mason jar the next day.  How could anything at night be so beautiful and just a mere bug the next morning?

Childhood is such a sweet time.  Back home again, there were endless games of kick the can and June bugs every summer.  If you have never seen a June bug... that's one up there, but the photo does not do them justice.  They are BIG for a bug.  They are the color of dried blood with white stripes that run from head to butt.  You can tie thread to their hind leg and amuse yourself watching them fly in a circle.  But the best part is that they hiss loudly and fan those big things on their heads.  Their feet are sticky and you have to pry them off  with care not to hurt them.

Scary and thrilling bugs.  Just the sort of fun for a warm summer evening in the city.

June is coming.  Yay!  I can feel the summer on the way despite the clouds,wind and rain today.

Or maybe its just the drugs.  I don't know.  

But hey...

its a great day.  Hope yours is too.

What is up with your weekend?